Cadence, Stepping Back
by scullyseviltwin
Summary: Musing about Cameron's husband...


"What's his name?" House asked, not looking at her, tapping his cane aimlessly on the floor.

Not 'was', 'is'. What _is _his name, as if he were still alive; he wasn't, she knew that.

Cameron's head lifted slowly from behind the laptop; she was bleary eyed, but awake, a stunning creature, alive and determined at such

a very late hour. The positively slick nature of his voice, the ease with which he spoke the words, as if he were entitled to the answer... it angered her.

And yet, yet she found herself answering him; "His name is David," she breathed, looking back down to her work simply to balance her emotions.

House moved closer to her, standing a mere three feet away; he didn't sit. "Was he good to you?" His voice still held the temperance and cadence that it did when he was talking to a simpleton, a cooperative patient. God, she was seething on the inside. How dare he? Truly, how did he go on like the entire conversation was normal.

"What kind of question is that?" she shot back tightly, her jaw set, teeth grinding.

House shrugged and tapped the chair with the end of his cane, giving her ample notice that he was sitting. She simply watched as he did so, knowing that if she spoke more words than she had to, she would end up pissing him off as well; no sense in the both of them being pissed when there was a case to be solved. "A question," he said, leaning back waiting for her answer.

Slowly, she shut the screen of her laptop and stared him down.

"Of course he was good to me," she said, venom dripping from every word.

"As good as he could have been from a bed."

Cameron stood then, ready to hit him... really hit him. A fist across the mouth would have done nicely; her brother taught her how to fight young. She was pretty, he'd reasoned and showed her how to curl her fist just right... "Why do you do this?"

There was no hesitation in his answer, "Because I want to know." His tone was the equivalent of a physical shrug.

Cameron's brow crinkled when she thought about his reasoning; there really was no reasoning to be frank, but she felt compelled to tell him, if only to just have him _know_. "You want to know?"

"I'm intrigued," he pressed, settling down for the duration of her story.

"I loved him."

"Did you..." He sounded so disinterested; that was how she knew she had him hooked.

"I still do. He was... amazing. Everything, he was really just everything, don't know how else to put it."

House nodded, his eyes clouding in a way that she was sure she hadn't categorized before. "Well.. put it differently, for the sake of diversity."

Cameron sat back down and stared at the wall. David, how to describe him, make him real for the man who never really saw anyone as real. "Hockey, he played hockey. Lost a ton of teeth... had em replaced..." A faint smile tickled her lips and she closed her eyes to think of him, to picture him. "But he was a great player... captain." She paused, "Yeah."

"What else?"

"Else?"

"Why did you fall in love with him?"

It took her a moment to respond to that. "I... fell in love with him because he liked to tell it like it was. He was caring and kind and made me felt like... like... I just loved him, it's hard to say why. I liked him for a lot of reasons I can say, but I don't really know why I loved him."

He simply sat before her and nodded as if he knew what was going on. "Don't do that! Don't act like you know what happened with me. Maybe you've seen it before, maybe you haven't, but you've never been through it, so don't act like you know how this _feels_."

He nodded, not wanting to push it. Cameron stared him down,

"He was just amazing, everything that I wasn't. I just... I just..." She stopped and looked him over slowly, so slowly. "Why do you _really_ want to know?" But he didn't say anything, just got up from the chair and walked away.

"Just tell me why," she pleaded.

House shrugged as he made his way towards the door, "Just because, I want to know how it feels..."

"How what feels?"

He turned back to her briefly, not looking at her, but not looking past her. "How it feels to love," he uttered and pushed his way through the door, leaving her to ponder over what he had said and why he had said it.


End file.
